Paladin Changes in Patch 5.4

In World of Warcraft, as with most MMOs, classes change over time. Abilities come and go or change. This usually happens around large content changes and is a result of either players complaining about something or Blizzard finding something that was over power, under powered, missing, or just plain lacking in a class.

Patch 5.4 brings a number of changes to many different classes in the game. The class that is most dear to my heart though is the Paladin, since I have played one since the beta of WoW and he has been my main character for most of the time I have played WoW.

So what is changing for Paladins with patch 5.4, what’s good, what’s bad, and what will it all really mean for them? Find out from the Messiah’s point of view right here.

Patch 5.4 Paladin Hand of Purity Changes

The Hand of Purity talent gets a fairly big buff in the patch, as it now reduces damage taken from harmful periodic affects by 80% (instead of 70%) and reduces damage taken from harmful periodic affects that cannot be prevented by immunities by 40% (instead of 0%), while reducing overall damage taken by 10%.

This is to what was already a fairly good talent. Now it is even better, the 80% reduction to DOTS and 40% to effects that you normally wouldn’t resist. With a 30 second cooldown and a 6 second up-time, this makes it a real option as a talent. I can see uses for it as a Paladin Tank in PVE or as almost anyone Paladin in PVP. Even as a Ret in PVE it has it’s uses, as you could then stay in AOE damage for several boss fights and continue to DPS instead of having to clear out.

Competing with Hand of Purity is the Unbreakable Spirit talent. This talent has also been updated, providing a boost in power, and simplifying it greatly. Instead of reducing the cooldown of Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by up to 50% depending on how much holy power you use, they are reduced by a flat 50% all the time.

It is a boost in power for some players and not for others Many retribution players could achieve that 50% anyway, but it took some effort and focusing on it. . Since you don’t need to worry about maximizing holy power use to with it any more to achieve the 50% time it far easier to worry about your normal rotations than having to think about something else.

Paladin Inquisition Changes in Patch 5.4

Retribution Paladins get a nice change to boost damage with a change to their Inquisition ability. The ability will now last 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power instead of the old 10 seconds per charge.

Team this up with the change to glyph of Inquisition which now increases the duration of Inquisition by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 2 minutes) each time the Paladin lands a killing blow on targets that yield experience or honor.

This is a boost of damage to retribution Paladins since it gives them more time with the buff up, in fact up to 40 seconds with three holy power. Better yet it will allow them keep the extra damage that inquisition provides available for a longer period of time in situations were they are able to kill enemies. This is useful for trash mobs, leveling, and in battlegrounds, making it available quite often.

Paladin PVP CC in Patch 5.4

Coming in the patch are a few changes that affect CC for Paladins and especially CC in PVP situations.

It all starts with the ability Turn Evil being changed to now have a 15 second cooldown instead of being spammable. How does this affect CC in PVP though? Good question.

The next part of the change is that the talent Burden of Built has been replaced with a new talent called Evil is a Point of View. This talent allows Paladins to use Turn Evil on players and beasts, turning this into a PVP friendly fear.

Also important to note is that the Glyph of Turn Evil is going to be redesigned since it will no longer be relevant as the adjusted Turn Evil ability now has a cooldown to start with. The new version of the glyph is not yet up on the PTR.

This change is a huge buff for Paladins who PVP in the arenas, but also a big issue in arenas as well. It’s a buff since Paladins in general have very little CC and can have a difficult time with controlling enemies in the arena. This gives Paladins some extra help in keeping away from enemies, getting enemies to stop beating on them or a healer, or just getting a break in combat.

It could be a huge issue though as there is already way too much CC in PVP combat. It seems that you can never do anything due to the amount of CC out there, and this just adds more of it. That being said, Paladins did come out at the short end of the stick CC wise in arenas and if anyone needed a boost, they did.

Paladin Patch 5.4 Change Notes as of July 8, 2013

All of the above are based off of the changes being tested so far in the PTR for patch 5.4. Here is a complete set of the patch notes.

Paladin

General

Turn Evil now has a 15-second cooldown. (Note: Glyph of Turn Evil will be redesigned and noted in a future PTR update.)

Talents

Burden of Guilt has been replaced with a new talent called Evil is a Point of View, which allows the Paladin to use Turn Evil on players and beasts.

Execution Sentence will now immediately damage the target for 5 times the amount of damage that had been dealt by Execution Sentence's most recent periodic effect when dispelled.

Stay of Execution will now immediately heal the target for 5 times the amount of healing that had been dealt by Stay of Execution's most recent periodic effect when dispelled.

Hand of Purity now reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects by 80% (up from 70%) and reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects that cannot be prevented by immunities by 40% (up from 0%).

Sacred Shield changes have been reverted and is a talent once more.

Sanctified Wrath

Holy: Now also increases the critical strike chance of Holy Shock by 20%.

Protection: Now causes Judgment to generate 2 Holy Power instead of 1 while Avenging Wrath is active.

Selfless Healer stacks now also work on Divine Light in addition to Flash of Light.

Bastion of Glory will now apply Selfless Healer's bonus to healing to the casting Paladin as well as other targets and consume all stacks of Bastion of Glory in the process.

Unbreakable Spirit has been simplified. It now reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by 50%.

Glyphs

Glyph of the Alabaster Shield now increases damage for the next Shield of the Righteous by 10% per stack (down from 20% per stack).

Glyph of Battle Healer has been redesigned. The glyph now causes Seal of Insight to heal the most wounded raid or party member instead of the Paladin.

Glyph of Denounce now causes Holy Shock to reduce the cast time of the next Denounce by 0.5 seconds, and the effect can stack up to 3 times.

Glyph of Inquisition has been redesigned. The glyph now increases the duration of Inquisition by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 2 minutes) each time the Paladin lands a killing blow on targets that yield experience or honor.

Holy

Protection

Grand Crusader no longer has a chance to activate from Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous, but now has a 30% chance to activate when dodging or parrying a melee attack (up from 12%).

Retribution

Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Retribution version) now has a reduced cooldown of 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes, and the maximum number of stacks has been reduced to 12.

Inquisition now lasts 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed, up from 10 seconds.

Comments on Paladin Patch 5.4 Changes

As is fairly obvious from my comments above, most of the changes are pretty good buffs to the Paladin class. There are a few minor nerfs in the notes, but nothing that I believe you should be overly worried about. As a Paladin, I feel pretty good about the changes, even if I can agree that adding more CC to the disaster that is CC in PVP is just adding more issues.

Do you have comments on the new PTR 5.4 Patch notes and how they affect the Paladin class? Make your comments below.